Stone snake
by marion.erixson
Summary: Bad summary is bad. A Young girl with a past that could give anyone nightmares is saved by the Heart pirates and has to learn to trust them in order to survive the dangerous situations the crew find themselfs in. Law x oc. Some things will be canon and some things will not, you have been warned. I use a lot of singing lyrics.
1. Chapter 1

**Authors note: This is my first fanfic and I hope you will have mercy on my horrible writing skills. Also English is not my native language so there's bound to be faults. Also I have found that I tend to Include song text on a regular basis, just thought I'd warn you about that!**

**Whether I continue this story will depend on what kind of reception it gets and if I do continue it there will most probably be a long time between updates, sorry bout that.**

**The lyrics are from JubyPhonics version of 'Outer Science' by IA with some adjustments since I pulled the text from my memory.**

**Characters may be a bit ooc and the way the main oc reacts may seem a bit random but I'm working on it, kay?**

**I have nothing against criticism that will approve my writing.**

A door slammed shut, but the girl lying curled up on the floor didn't notice, she had stopped caring a long time ago. Now there was only pain, a pain that was constantly there, hurting, clawing and tearing at every wound that covered the shaking figure pathetically praying for some kind relief from it, even death would do, but the relief never came, in its stead was a never ending routine of getting beaten up to the verge of death and then left bleeding and hurting on the bloody wooden floor of her cell. She had stopped hoping a long time ago, she would never get away and she had accepted that future fully, no longer hoping to find herself in the peaceful life that she had once imagined for herself. But, even so, her hope had flared slightly when she heard sounds of fighting coming from above, the pained screams and the clang of blades giving her a sick sense of satisfaction, she loathed her heart for reacting like that, she would never be free, she knew it and still her hope remained, covering her in a blanket of comfort, 'maybe the ones that seemed to be winning the battle would have the mercy of killing her' she thought a shadow of a smile sneaking its way into the bruised, starved structure that was her face.

**(Law POV)**

Law watched the battle play out with lazy uncaring eyes from the railing of the enemy ship, it had been clear even from the first clang of steel that he wasn't needed to assist in this battle, his subordinates easily overpowering the crew of the ship that they were raiding for supplies. So instead of joining in the fight he walked over to a hatch in the deck with quite the intricate lock preventing entrance.

"Room" he whispered as a light blue dome appeared around him. He pulled his nodachi out of its sheath and with practiced ease he aimed a single slice at the lock, cutting it in half as if it was butter. As the dome flickered away he made his way deeper into the ship, and was relatively disappointed when he found nothing but a single steel door at the end of the rather lengthy corridor he had seen when entering the hatch, but at the same time interested, _'what could be so valuable as to keep it under such a lock?'_ he silently wondered as he slowly opened the surprisingly enough unlocked door.

As the door slowly creaked open the girl turned to look at the next person that would come to have her life in her hands and was surprised when she saw a tall man in his early twenties outside, she had expected a man such as the previous one, old, fat and ugly, he had on a pair of pants with strange dotted marks going up to his knees, a yellow and black hoodie with a creepy smiley face in the middle and to top it off a fur hat with the same dotted design as on the pants, she couldn't make out much of the mans face other than a small black goatee, two golden earrings in one of his ears and black bags under his eyes.

" And who might you be? " he asked, completely unfazed of the fact that there was a badly beat up and starved girl laying in a puddle of blood on the floor in front of him.

"My name's..." she croaked forth not used to speaking after years of silence, _'what was her name?'_ she found herself wondering, no one had ever bothered to ask her that question in a long time and she had never thought anybody ever would again "Medusa" she finished her sentence, quickly coming up with a name for herself since she couldn´t remember her old one, instantly regretting her choice to even having answered the simple question for her answer was not one she was pleased with.

" Well then, miss Medusa it seems you are in need of patching up, can you walk or will I have to carry you?" at this note she wanted to spit in his sorry face, she might only be a shell of what she once was, a broken person that had lived through the worst and not even close to as powerful as before but she still had her pride as a pirate. Slowly standing up she answered " I would prefer if you could simply end my life here and now, I have nothing left to fight for and a pirate without a dream is as useless as a guppy in a sea-kings nest"

As she said this his face visibly darkened and he reached his hand out to grab her and in her weakened state she couldn't do anything to stop him "carrying it is then" he said a smirk grazing his features swiftly turning her around and knocked her unconscious and lifting her up over his shoulder like a bag of potatoes. Even in her unconscious state she could determine that one day this man would regret treating her like everyday trash, even if it was only petty revenge for hurting her pride, or, what was left of it anyways.

~time skip~

Law was confused, the girl he had found pettily curled up on the bloody floor of a cell five days ago had changed completely when he had suggested carrying her to the infirmary of his "ship" standing up and holding herself like a noble but with enough fight in her eyes to be sure she wasn´t one, no noble would have been able to stand the treatment she had been through. She had several broken and badly healed bones, uncountable bruises and scratches, many infected wounds, was badly starved and had more scars than him covering her body, she was in horrible shape and even with his skills as a doctor he wasn´t sure she would pass the age of thirty. She had outright stated that she wished to die, and this was what puzzled Law the most, even though he perfectly understood the feeling of being in so much pain that death seemed like the best option, he had felt that many times, he had always kept on fighting to reach his goals. Also there was the detail she had let on about her being a pirate, which could explain the way she had held herself and reacted to his words, but, in that case she had probably been a high ranking pirate since the lesser known crews only were trash who desired nothing more than gold and women.

Law himself was a pirate on the rise with a current bounty of two hundred million on his head, classifying him as a supernova, a pirate that had reached a bounty of over a hundred million in less than a year grouping him with ten others from this years generation with only two people holding higher bounties than him, however those were incredibly high, "Straw hat" Luffys three hundred million and Eustass "captain" Kids three hundred and fifteen million made him uneasy. True, Straw hats bounty came from his extreme recklessness and the sheer number of government enemies he had on his crew while Eustass often got civilians involved in his fights as well as his tendency to start unnecessary ones, but both of those crews carried not only one but two supernovas, the Kidd pirates one hundred and thirty two million bounty "massacre soldier" Killer and the straw hat pirates "pirate hunter" Roronoa Zoro. There was one more thing about the straw hat pirates that worried him, rumors were going around in cities all over the grand line that the Captain, Luffy had support from the revolutionary army, a frightening thought indeed that a pirate had connections with the second strongest army in the world.

These thoughts plagued the "surgeon of death" while he sat at the side of the only patient that still had yet to wake up until a voice woke him from his troubling train of thought, "Oi! Wake up from your daydreaming miss daisy!" When he looked up with a carefully applied mask to hide his anger at being called such a ridiculous name he saw that the girl had woken up an was sitting up on the infirmary bed dressed in only her underwear with a rather bored expression directing an irritating aura his way that he pointedly ignored. He knew that even if she felt like the years she had been captive had never been, that feeling was caused by a medicine he´d given her so that she´d be able to answer his questions the same way she wold have done if she had been in her right mind, the effects would wear off in about ten hours and he was worried about what he would do about her then

**(Medusa POV)**

As soon as my captor saw me awake he started questioning me, though I was surprised when I realized that he must be the doctor of wherever I was judging on him now wearing a lab coat and his way of looking completely at ease and like he had done this many times before,

"Age?" I had to think for a while to figure it out, fortunately for me there was a calender on the wall that showed the year and I was able to calculate her answer "nineteen" "full name?" "I don't have a surname", my only answer was an acknowledging nod, "diseases?" "none that I am aware of" "allergies?" "Weird doctors" I stated like I was completely serious, with a smirk on his lips he slowly said as he scribbled on the clipboard in his hands. "patient... seems.. to.. have.. developed... a. smart... tongue"

Okay it was official, I would crush him for making fun of me, I was already looking forward to it. No matter what, **h****e would pay!**

While I was busy making plans for the most painful way I could gut him without him dying the man called in another person "make sure she doesn't get lost when she leaves the infirmary, and, if anything happens, bring her to me immediately" he ordered and the other man who was wearing a white boiler suit with the same mark that the doctor had on his hoodie and a completely ridiculous hat in a penguin pattern with a red furball on the top and the word penguin written in black on its center answered with a "yes captain!". At those words I froze up in my thoughts about the gutting and stared at them both, I was on a pirate ship? The possibility almost paralyzed me, maybe...

"You pirates?" I asked, as the man in the penguin hat nodded I proceeded to ask "do you have bounties?" the man in the hat spoke up "yeah! Captain's even a supernova!" as I heard this I slowly walked over to a bag that I could not be happier the doctor brought with him after "meeting" me, pulling up the zipper and reaching inside I brought up a roll of now yellow paper and threw it at the doctor who caught it lazily and while he was rolling it up I asked "You okay with me riding on your ship for a while?" The penguin hat let out a surprised sound upon seeing what was on the piece of paper and I was pleased seeing even the captain/doctor having a surprised expression flash over his face for a few seconds. On the paper was a picture of a barely fourteen year old me wearing a black one piece covered with a white lab coat standing on a mountain of corpses, blood covering the arms holding an equally bloodied scythe resting on her shoulders, there was no name under the picture but instead the title that would normally be placed under the text above the picture saying "wanted: Dead or Alive" the title read "Soul Reaper" with an insane number below."Four hundred million..." weird hat said in a voice that gave away his thoughts on whether he should run or just gawk at me for the bounty that rose over everyone elses in the crew."You are welcome in my crew, but, how come that you, that at the time of this posters issuing obviously was strong, got into the possession of such weak people?" asked the doctor, (I still had issues thinking of him as a captain)

"long story, if you wish to hear it now I can tell you, but, before I do that I would like you giving me your name at the very least" "Trafalgar Law" he simply said, "and I would indeed enjoy you sharing your story as soon as possible". I sighed, this was not going to be easy but I guess I don't have to tell him about everything, at that thought a picture of who I'd been flashed before her eyes, a small dirty orphan even more starved for food then she was now, on her knees with children and adults alike kicking her and throwing things at her, I quickly pushed the vision away into the back of my head and made myself ready to tell pieces of my past to a person I barely knew. Of course I wouldn't give everything away, only as much as was necessary.

"When I was a kid I was seen as a monster by everyone in my village, they believed I killed my own parents. I was beaten till I couldn't stand and then beaten some more, I was an outcast with no family and no talent other than killing, one day I went ballistic and killed everyone in my vicinity, lost in my blood lust I rampaged on several more islands until I finally regained control. When I did I already had a bounty and all I could do to survive was piracy, a while later guilt took over me instead and while I was busy pitying myself they, the pirates whose ship I was on captured me and demanded I joined their crew, I refused, end of story"

Trafalgar seemed to take this information in for a while and then asked "how many people did you kill on your rampage?" I didn't answer, I 'd rather not think about it, but, the doctor had other plans, "listen Medusa, I do not like repeating myself, and I will not more then once, how many did you kill?" "Too many" my voice was hoarse and all I wanted to do was to run as far away from the memory as possible, "I was looking for an estimated number" he stated blankly seemingly not caring that the young woman in front of him was on the verge of breaking into tears. "Ten thousand..." she whispered out, the captains eyes widened a little at this, the frail, traumatized girl in front of him did not look like she would be able to survive a normal brawl, even less kill anybody and never ten thousand. Trafalgar Law was chocked, he had killed many people and his hands had been stained a crimson red many times, but, compared to this girl he looked borderline innocent, even if you counted his test subjects (of which there had been many) he barely made it past the five hundred mark.

"Show Miss Medusa where she will be sleeping from now on" he ordered his subordinate as he strode out of the infirmary, leaving a borderline crying girl and a very confused man in a penguin patterned hat behind

Once the captain had left I found it easier to compose myself, his presence was so strong it was suffocating even though he was always wearing a lazy expression. I carefully masked my emotions and took a deep breath "shall we get going?" I asked penguin-hat, after dressing myself in a boiler suit that had been left on the side of the bed, who nodded his approval and started making his way towards the sleeping quarters on the second floor of the ship that penguin-hat explained was actually a submarine, "here on the first floor" he started explaining the layout of the sub "is the galley, infirmary, navigators office, storage rooms and the captains office, on the second floor are the sleeping quarters, bathrooms, engine room, library and training room" _'a bit big for a submarine maybe?'_ I thought but said nothing, since I assumed penguin-hat would continue talking to me soon, I was correct. "Oh, by the way, my name's Penguin, nice to meet cha!" he said "we only have two other women on board and they´re already taken so everybody is going to be happy when they find out that we have another female on the crew!" he stopped to knock on a door that had the number forty painted on, "all numbered doors are for sleeping in" he added "I live in room three so if you ever need anything you can just stop by". As the door to the room opened slightly Penguin darted away and my brow furrowed, were these women really that horrible?

"Oh my" a distinctly feminine voice said, sounding very mature "another girl!" an exited little girls voice exclaimed, and before I could react strong hands had already pulled me into the room.

It was a lot roomier than I had first thought it would be, a door off to the side which I assumed led to the bathroom, three dressers mirroring the three beds aligning the wall across to the door, one of the beds was neatly made with a nightgown placed on top of the sheets, the second was a mess with bounty posters hanging on the wall behind it, the third was empty with nothing to set it apart from the room it was in, I guessed that would be my bed. In front of me stood two women, one that seemed to be in her mid twenties with short black hair cut in a boys style wearing short shorts and a tank top, she was smiling brightly at me and I instantly felt welcomed by the tomboyish woman, in contrast the woman next to her was her polar opposite it seemed, a beautiful young woman in her late teens like me with long brown wavy hair that went down to her hips wearing a dignified long dress that seemed impossible to move in. "Do you have any idea how you look?" the proper one asked, wrinkling her nose at me, I didn´t know, I had not seen myself in a mirror since I had been sold at the auction house at Shaobondy archipelago years ago, all I knew was that I had blonde hair, green eyes and, looking at my length compared to these women I found it average. "No" I answered honestly, "proper" instantly grabbed me and lead me to a mirror made to see your whole body with, I saw a malnourished girl wearing one of the boiler suits that was to big for her with a birds nest of yellow hair on her head, not much had changed since I last had seen myself. "Lets fix you up!" The older one chirped bringing a big bag of stuff with her into the bathroom, I sighed, clearly she was intending to use all that stuff on me and it was not a prediction I was happy with.

~time skip~

Law stood on the deck of the submarine early in the morning, his thoughts never far from the girl that had ended up trapped in an unlocked room on the ship that he had no doubt she, if she had been in her full power, could have wiped out within seconds, he'd still had questions after she'd finished telling her story but he didn't push her, he would get his answers in due time and she was still very much his patient, he knew that pressuring her too much would make her crack. Just as he was contemplating how to speed up her mental healing, Medusa came running out on the deck and jumped the railing, Law swore to himself walking towards the railing to see if she had tried to kill herself, and yes indeed, she was not resurfacing. Law quickly called for the subs cook, whom was the only person except Law who was up this early and luckily enough was out on the deck with his captain, and it did not take long for the chef to bring her up on deck again. Sometimes Law cursed his powers, he had gotten them from a devils fruit and the consequence to eating one was that the person lost the ability to swim but gained an ability that may or may not be useful, his ability was definitely useful to him but he still missed being able to swim, sometimes, in situations like these were he had rely on others to help him he felt helpless. A feeling he did not enjoy.

Walking up to the girl he saw that the other females on the sub had fixed her appearance a bit, her hair was no longer a complete birds nest and her skin had regained some life. She still needed to put on a lot of weight but at least she didn't look like dying at any moment and Law could already see that she would be pretty when she recovered. Pushing that thought away he concentrated on making sure she didn't die from the seawater inhaled, and, after some efforts she regained consciousness. He was very angry with her, for, losing a person under his aid made him furious even if they caused their own death.

"What the hell do you think you were doing?!" was the first thing she heard upon opening her eyes, Law was angry with her _'well of course he would be, you dimwit! You tried to drown yourself!',_ Yeah, but what else was she to do? Live? She was done with living, no one wanted her alive, so why did she keep failing too die? Why had she been saved when that was obviously the only thing she was fit to do, that she _could_ do.

"I decided to take a little swim" she answered "if it had ended with my death then that would not have been a big loss"

"I don´t care what motives you have for wanting to die, but you will not do as such on my submarine, I hope you will keep in mind that you are very thoroughly insulting me by trying to take the life I spared" Law had said everything in a very calm manner but the threat in his voice was as clear as day, before she could retort he had spun on his heel and left.

Curling up into a ball she started crying, why didn´t he just let her die? As soon as she had woken up this morning all of the memories had come flooding back to her, the village, the blood and the abuse, every part of her life displayed in frightening detail for her to remember. Furiously she started ripping the skin on her arms to shreds with her nails while singing out the lyrics of a song that she should've long forgotten.

"Tragedy ridden, never fit in, and dead now.

A life gone so quickly, would it knock at the door?

Fidgeting itty bitty master watches.

Oh what an ugly tale!

Sprawling and crawling down the body and throat

Melting away the decaying, beaten down heart

Drink it and sink in every bit of your love

I´m hungry for your eyes

Hey, it´s all that you had wanted and more

And then you stared a scary glare into my core

A bleeding tragic heart before me

And I´m Starving!

You´re in the belly of the beast

Love and your ego rest in peace

And the 'weird' little you will soon be born anew

Back to page one where this story

Started really getting gory

Crying to god you scream out [Why!?]

Stop this already, you just whine

Would you suck it up now? This fate can not be unwound

Welcome to horrible, terrible, pitiful Reality

Dream, live, think and die on the ground now

They fall so in love then watch it come falling down

Softly he´s snickering, the smiling snake

How stupid can they be?

Ah, tell me why I can´t get enough

Gotta break them, the shaking hearts that never give up

Haunting their tauntingly inadequate lives

I´m buried in their eyes

Right, it´s living in you, crawling inside?

The power digging deep, unable to meet their eyes

In this cold as stone tragedy

You´ll be the queen

Cheers to the years of life you made

Love and your ego slip and snake

Hazy days all around, as they come billowing down

Back to page one where this story

Started really getting gory

[Please give it back!] You screech and scream

[Stop this already!] Quit the plea

Oh, you think that I care?

This is just one fated snare

Welcome to horrible, terrible, pitiful Reality

Ah, what a stupid way to live

Try and try again, you just resist

Want to turn back the page

Reset the actors on stage

Knock it down as you´re heaving

Howling Even Louder

Screaming

Ah! What an ugly way to live

Don´t ever ask me [Why?] again

Just bleeding with greed and doing time for the crime

Believing miracles empty, breaking into pieces plenty

[Done with it all! I just don´t care!]

Helpless and crying, you sit there

But that is all I will say, the end is fading away

Day after, day after kids of tomorrow

Day after, day after sunset

Day after, day after

The bloodied haze"

Strong hands stopped the shredding of her arms, she looked up only to see the worried eyes of a big man seemingly in his early thirties that smelled like kitchen, "Why are you hurting yourself so terribly, child?" concern lined his voice, making him seem more like a father than a pirate, when she didn't answer he continued, "let's get you patched up and then maybe you could help Lexus prepare breakfast" when she nodded he gently pulled her up from her sitting position and lead her to the infirmary. Well there a youth that presented himself as Al Tornheim and the proper girl from yesterday, whose name was Tsubaki, stitched and bandaged her arms, she was sternly told by Tsubaki to never, ever again do that to her arms "it leaves ugly scars" was her argument. Medusa found herself enjoying the company of the beauty obsessed woman, even partially forgetting the memories that were constantly forcing their way into her mind, even slightly smiling at the motherly toting of the woman.

Lexus, who enjoyed talking of himself in third person, dragged her to the galley and asked her if she had any experience in a kitchen, she nodded, and he quickly handed her some instructions on what to do, and as she set to work she felt calm again. It seemed that doing something familiar helped her handle the will to go to her room and hang herself. Finishing up making some scrambled eggs and a big bowl of fruit salad she looked over to see how Lexus was doing, and , it seemed this crew never stopped surprising her, he had a mountain of food nicely laid up on plates next him while he was preparing a bit of bread dough for going in the oven, ashamed looking over at her own small preparations she decided she would bake something sweet to make up for the lack of sugar in the breakfast menu.

Later when the crew entered the galley there was scrambled eggs, freshly baked bread, fruit salad, all kinds of sandwiches and, surprising the crew, a big mountain of jam filled onigiri arranged in order of sweetness, from apple flavor to strawberry and apricot. The onigiri was a big hit with the crew who almost ate all of them. "I haven't seen the captain yet, where is he?" she asked Lexus as they took some of the food that was left after the crew had eaten, "probably studying" he answered "he usually doesen´t eat anything other than coffee for breakfast" she grew angry, he was the doctor on this damn boat, he was the one responsible for the health of the crew and yet he didn´t even take care of himself, judging on the constant bags under his eyes he didn´t get enough sleep either. She grabbed a couple more things for her plate, including three onigiri with different flavors and headed for the exit of the galley, "Lexus, is he in his bedroom or in his office?"

"office, Lexus hopes he doesn't turn you into a jigsaw puzzle for disturbing his work" Lexus cheerily answered, she chuckled, as if he´d be able to even lay a finger on her now, she healed quickly and had regained a lot of her strength, she was nowhere near as strong as she had once been, but, she had seen Laws wanted poster above her energetic roommates bed and a two hundred million bounty would be no problem.


	2. chapter 2

_**Yo!**_** I lost my internet connection and thought that I would write something to keep myself occupied and decided that I would make at least one more chap on this story, but it's so short that I'm not sure I should even call it that. I know I said that there would probably be a long time between updates and it probably will be once I lose some of my energy to write this story and feel like starting a new one.**

**I realize that I forgot to write this in the last chapter but I, sadly, don´t own One Piece and does not have the power to make all hot guys in there go around shirtless all the time, even if I wanted to, especially Law *drools*. All I own are my oc's.**

_Drizzling down, the rain had no mercy on the girl sitting in the middle of the street, slightly showering off the blood that covered every inch of her skin as well as the fabric of her torn up clothes. She wasn't crying, she believed crying was for stupid people and held back the water pooling in her eyes when another wave of pain hit her, the wounds from the rocks that had been thrown at her never stopped hurting, they never healed, they never ever gave up the stinging pain that they gave her and she had gotten used to it. She sat here, day and night, getting pelted with stones and insults every now and then, but she never moved, she just sat there, welcoming every moment of pain that brought her closer to death, she could've throwed herself off a cliff or hanged herself but instead she just sat there, letting all the pain plague her for so long it would take for her to die. She didn't know why she did this, she didn't even know why she was treated this way by the other villagers, she only knew that they hated her with every bit of their beings, they resented her for merely existing and would take every chance to hurt her. But the girl just didn't die! She had been there, in the middle of the street, for almost a week, with no food, water and more stones being threwn at her every day, she had lost so much blood, but her body just didn't give up the way her mind had, it kept on fighting and refused the fate that the broken person inside had chosen for it. Suddenly the girl was lifted of the ground by a big hand, she didn't react, she was limp in the arms that were now carrying her bridal style towards the big marine base on the island. _

_T__he arms belonged to a very displeased petty officer who had wanted this girl to die the same way she had been about to when his jerk of a captain decided that **it** was disturbing the calm of the village and wanted her executed at the base. He thought that the thing in his arms didn't deserve such a painless death, and should be sent to Impel Down, he had heard the stories of her and he had instantly determined that she was a monster deserving of the worst, honestly, what kind of beast would kill their own parents?_

Knocking on the door in front of her, and hearing a muffled "come in" from the other side, Medusa stepped into a room that was extremely tidy with bookshelves lining the walls and a big desk sitting dead in the middle. A tall man with bags under his eyes, black ruffled hair and caramel skin was sitting at it looking down into a pile of notes, his golden earrings gleaming in the soft light of the lamp in the ceiling, to say that he was handsome was an understatement, but Medusa hurriedly kicked that thought in the balls before it could get to far into her head, the last thing she needed was a crush on a person she didn't trust in the least. "Your breakfast, Law" she coldly stated before putting it down in front of him, not caring about the notes that were still under the tray of food, "oh, and if you need any help with that" she pointed to the work that was still intact on his desk, "you can call me after breakfast, I know a thing or two about medicine" at this she stepped out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

Sighing, she leaned on the wall next to the door, despite his lazy facial expression, the man was scary and had aura of killing intent always surrounding him, she supposed this wasn't too strange since the man was a pirate, but she was one too! A stronger one at that, she could probably beat him up even though her wounds were not healed yet and she hadn't had any practice in years. _'I should remedie that'_ she thought as her feet steered themselves towards what Penguin had pointed out as the training room.

Sipping the coffee that had been delivered together with a rather tasty breakfast, Law was annoyed, first of all his research had been interrupted, secondly, it had been interrupted by the very subject of his research, making him lose concentration in his cause, fascinated by the way the woman radiated grace and modesty at the same time as she was sending off a feeling that reminded him of some mental patients that could change from good willed, normal people to murdering beasts, often he could classify these people as geniuses in the way they thoroughly tricked their surroundings into believing them harmless and then could murder hundreds of people, without caring that they could had helped them in the past, sometimes even saved them. Heartless, yes, but stupid? No.

The ability to completely push your conscience away, even to the point of memory loss, was fascinating to him and he hoped that one day he could dissect the brain of someone with this ability, he was a doctor, but, when it came to thing such as these, he became a scientist.

Making his mind as devoid of things like dissection as it ever would be and taking another sip of his coffee, Law went back to the few articles in the newspapers from the latest ten years about the "Soul reaper", intent on finding some information on his newest crewmember.

Walking into the room designated for training, Medusa was surprised to see how well equipped it was, for hand to hand combatants that is. Mentally sighing she decided that she would walk over to a room that seemed to be designated for weaponry, looking around the room she saw something that interested her hanging among the other weapons, a scythe, of very good quality too. Walking over and grasping the weapon she swung it about a bit, grinning when it felt like her old one, even the design was similar, with a black blade and spikes going out in all directions from the place where the blade and staff met. It was a great weapon, a bit dull though, but that was easily fixed, finding sufficient supplies to sharpen the blade was easy and in a few moments she was happy with the sharpness and brought it back into the training room for some practice.

Sweating and heavily panting I lifted my scythe to repeat the pattern of movements I had just gone through, after a bit of exercise I had found out how weak I had truly become in my years of imprisonment and I resented myself for it, I would have to work hard to get my skill with this weapon back too and was already planning to stay the rest of the day if the training room when a cheery voice interrupted me. "I don´t think that exercise is the best way for your injuries to heal", when I turned around the older one of the girls in my room stood there carrying a giant, two bladed battleaxe over her shoulder, smiling she asked "wanna spar?" I nodded, wiping the sweat off my face as I turned to face her. "I heard from Penguin that you are a big shot, that true?" I nodded again "I **was**" I answered, at this her face got a sadistic smirk "so you´re not that good anymore, eh?" "no, and I think you've spent too much time with Law, he's rubbed off on you" I said before I flew at her and quickly hit her axe out of her hand with the staff, aiming the blade at her throat, "but even though I'm weaker than I was before you shouldn't get arrogant" I whispered to her mimicking her smirk from before that had now fallen from her face in place of a shocked expression.

She laughed, smiling more than I had ever seen anyone smile before, but it's not like I have a lot of experience with people smiling, so what do I know, "Hey, I don´t think we've introduced ourselves yet, have we? I´m Kokoro D Hakiri" she said smiling even wider "I´m Medusa" I answered, a small smile touching my lips.

**Review, please? with sugar, cream, sprinkles and a cherry on top?**


	3. Chapter 3

**Yay! I got my lazy ass to the computer and wrote another chapter! Wheee!**

**Again, sorry for the short chapter, I've just had a lot of stuff to deal with. **

**I know that Medusa is overpowered but it just kinda happened, oh well, I guess I'll nerf her soon.**

After a quick shower I felt renewed, the training had really tired me out, after a while Hakiri had stopped trying to beat me and decided that we should try out my hand to hand combat. Hakiri completely kicked my ass since my muscles were more or less nonexistent.

Standing in the doorway to the galley I could hear many exited voices coming from inside, sighing, I slowly opened the door to reveal the chaos inside. I was really hungry, I had skipped lunch in favor of training and could hear my stomach rumble when I smelled the appetizing aroma of the food arranged in trays in the middle of the room.

Hurriedly grabbing a full plate of food I looked around the room in search of someone I knew,"Medusa-chaaan!" came a voice from my right, "come sit with us!" Turning around I spotted a table where two men and a polar bear sat, looking my way. Chuckling, I started walking towards the familiar penguin patterned hat sat on the head of one of the tables inhabitants. "This is so unfair!" a man with red hair and a strangely colored hat howled at Penguin, "Why do you know the new girl?! Answer Penguin!" Still chuckling, I sat down next to the bear and quietly stated eating my food. While Penguin and the one I decided to affectionately refer to as 'that other guy' where arguing I heard another voice from my left, "Who are you?" _'someone must have taken the polar bears seat' _I thought, "you know" I said with my mouth full of delicious spaghetti "it's polite to tell someone your name before you start questioning them" I suddenly felt a depressing aura coming from where the person speaking should be "I'm sorry!" he cried as I turned around to look at him. "The polar bear talks..." I whispered.

**"THE POLARBEAR CAN TALK!"**

**"I'M SORRY!" **

***dunk* **

"Owwie, Penguin, why'd you hit me?" I said as I clasped my head in my hands. "I felt like it" he answered as 'that other guy' nodded his head firmly before returning his attention to his food. I did the same but kept up an awkward conversation with the polar bear, I don't really like fluffy things.

After a few minutes someone decided to disturb my meal. "You know, Medusa-ya, it´s not very polite to take someone elses chair." came a calm voice behind me

"Ummm, I, um, I think I'll just, um, I, I'm already finished" I intelligently stuttered forth, quickly grabbing the remnants of my food and bolting off to wash the dishes and GTFO of there before a man in spotted pants came after me.

After running back to my room I decided I would go through my bag and see if all my stuff was there, I found my logbook that, to my surprise, didn't seem like it had been opened. My log pose, some money and I also found a pair of my outfits complete with underwear that was a bit too small for me, since it had been years since I had any other clothes than the ones that I been captured in. Happy that I wouln't have too steal all my clothes from Tsubaki and Hakiri I changed into a black tank top and a pair of stretch jeans.

"MARINES!" came a shout from the corridor, I instantly grabbed the scythe that I had taken as my own and dropped off at my room when I was taking my shower and ran out the door towards the deck of the sub.

The sight meeting me well there was enough to make me burst into laughter, everywhere the limbs of the marines that had been stupid enough to try to board us were still moving, trying to get back to their owner, no blood in sight.

"Enjoying yourself?" said Law, standing on the railing lazily tossing a screaming head in his hand

"yes, but I would have more fun if I got to see some blood captain" he nodded his consent, and I licked my lips as I somersaulted over to one of the two battleships that were on either side of the sub. I shouted to the ones currently on the ship to get off, and they did, I had brought forth a demanding tone in my voice, the tone you develop after ordering people around for many years, and I could even detect a bit of surprise from Law with my haki.

I swung my scythe into the air, hoping to split the ship with one swing, and sent a powerful slice which managed to make its way only to the tip of the sword blocking it. I looked up at my opponent, a person able to block one of my swings must have an impressive amount of strength.

"God day, petty officer Tori" I found myself saying to the tall man, I knew he couldn't be a petty officer anymore, but, that was the rank I remembered so I went with it. He'd been on Garp's ship before my 'mental cough' vacation , he hadn't been a very good leader for the few men he had been trusted with. "You" he growled "I thought you wold have crawled off and died by now" his voice was filled with hatred and distaste, he hated me with all his being. "Well, death was boring, so I decided I´d come back" I winked at him while swiftly jumping away from him. Around me I could hear his men whispering either about that I seemed to know Tori's or how I had insulted him by calling him a petty officer, from these whispers I also found out that he was a commodore now, 'not bad progress during just a few years' I thought to myself as I readied my scythe for another swing.

"soru" I muttered and as I appeared behind my enemy my scythe reshaped into a crescent shape "crescent cut" I said before I placed a long gash on Tori's back, while I still had the element of surprise I took the staff part of my scythe and bonked him in the head with it to make him lose consciousness. 'Well that was easy' I thought as I turned to the rest of the people, grinning madly, I jumped high up in the air onto the crows nest and swung once towards the deck of the ship, splitting it in two. Jumping back onto the sub I found that the other battleship had also been taken down, they weren't raided, the pirates still had enough supplies from the raid on my captors ship, so it wasn't necessary and navy battleships weren't really known for holding treasure. Also, the ones that were still on deck, were cheering for me, it seemed that they had been watching the show I had put on and seemed dead set on having something to celebrate and get drunk for.

The night passed in a blur with a lot of singing, drinking and avoiding drunks that thought that groping me was a good idea. I remember being very glad that spotted pants man hadn't shown himself at all and doubly so when I found some antidepressants in my bag, I was still working really hard not to snap in front of the crew, but the training session seemed to have diminished my bloodlust and so had trashing a battleship.

~le tiny time skip~

"Uuuugh" I felt like crap, probably smelled like it too. I was sitting up in my bed, it was still really early in the morning and I had only slept like three hours. Getting up I went to have a shower and a big, big mug of coffee, no amount of caffeine and painkillers could be considered wrong by me in my current state of mind.

**please with whipped cream and a cherry on top, review **


	4. Chapter 4

**Hiya! I'm sorry I didn't upload any chapters earlier, I've been on a fencing camp on Gotland for the last week, my poor arm is covered in bruises. We also had a pretty tough schedule and an equally tough trainer, I came two minutes late once and he punished the entire group, they hated me after that. lol**

**I hope that the action scene in the last chapter wasn't too lame...**

**Oh! Btw, I got my first review! Weeeeeee! Thank you so much for reviewing Lucy Jacob, I am really grateful for your advice and will do my best to take heed of it, also, I don't know where this story is going either, I'm just kinda floating along hoping that it'll turn out ok, we'll just have to wait and see if I can cook something interesting up for you.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own one piece, it, and all the characters within, belongs to Toei animation and Eiichiro Oda. (did I spell his name right? Stupid japanese and their weird and totally awesome names) The only thing that I own are my oc's**

**Anyways, on with le story!**

Sitting at his desk, the surgeon of death was looking down at the pieces of information he had managed to conjure up about his newest crewmember, the story he had found was only bits and pieces but it still explained a lot about her that he didn't understand. He had found a story from fourteen years ago about a girl that looked like her whose name was unknown that had apparently slaughtered everyone on her home island and thus been put into an asylum, two years later she had been released and wasn't heard from until eight years ago when she once again made headlines for slaughtering. However this time it wasn't only one island, but ten and at least one marine isle, with that article came the photo that was of a little blond child with short hair, big green eyes and a maniacs grin. After this, stories of her became common, mostly they were about her massacring marines and pirates alike, sometimes civilians too, but they weren't as common. It seemed that he wouldn't get much more from digging in papers after her past, he was slightly disappointed since the articles had very little info on the events and the murderer and focused more on the ones that had died in the incidents. Sighing, Law decided that he would stop putting his nose in her business for now, if he wanted to know more he would have to ask her, and first he'd need her to trust him. Sighing again, he shuffled the papers on her beneath some on the healing properties of a plant common on the island they were going to next, dead set on making something useful out of this day.

~Medusas POV~

Stepping out of the shower in my, Hikia's and Tsubaki's room I sighed, I had had at least three cups of coffee before going here but I still felt like I had when I woke up, then again, who would be able to recover when they'd only slept three hours. It was five o'clock in the morning and I just couldn't get back to sleep. In the bed next to me Hikia was happily snoring away, she had started a drinking contest rather early in the night which had continued until half of the crew were knocked out cold and me and Tsubaki had to drag a drunk, lolling Hikia back to our room. Tsubaki hadn't even had one drink, stating that "She didn't want to look like she just stepped out of a garbage bin tomorrow" and I had ignored her for the most of the night, stupidly drinking my way through the memories that were always demanding my attention, a stunt that had, as Tsubaki predicted, resulted in me feeling like a living pile of crap. Sobbing softly I sat down on my bed, now that I didn't have anything to distract myself with I couldn't pretend to be okay, ' I have to sort my past out' I thought to myself, I knew that if I leaved it untended to, my bloodlust would return and all the people on the sub would suffer because of it. Not that I'd mind, I didn't know them and I didn't trust them, I even suspected Law for giving me some kind of obscure drug since my memories from yesterday and the day before were hazy and I found myself having trouble remembering the faces of the people I'd met.

No, I wouldn't mind killing them, maybe I'd just get a case of bad conscience since they'd saved me, but they weren't my friends. I chuckled, friends? Never had 'em, never will. The only person I had trusted, she had turned on me and I promised myself that I wouldn't ever again leave myself so helpless in front of a person, it could only go bad.

_The little girl sitting in a cell next to the ones containing well known criminals looked completely harmless, but everyone withing the corridor was afraid of her, they had heard the rumors about her and at day she would mumble to herself, at night, she would scream, gut wrenching screams that could be heard all the way across the island, screams for mercy, screams of agony and screams of hatred. She was lost, completely and utterly lost in her mind, swinging back and forth between sobbing and howling, though sometimes, she would become quiet. Those times were the worst, she would sit silently with her legs drawn up to her chest, staring like a dead fish into nowhere, her mouth hanging slightly open. Then a high pitched sound would start coming out of her mouth, slowly increasing in strength until she was back at her screaming and thrashing._

_The villagers wanted her dead, but some of the higher ups in the marines saw executing a child as bad, since it would spread a negative message about them, and decided that she would be moved to an asylum instead, as long as she was out of their way. So, here she sat, in a padded room, drowning in her misery and hoping that the pain would some day stop._

**So guys, sorry for the extremely short chapter, again, I've had a lot to deal with lately and will put up a new chapter soon, I was just going to give you this small piece to make you remember that this insignificant story put on the internet by some average loser still exists.**

**Please review, it helps my writing and, as you can see, I need all the help I can get.**

**Byesies!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey! Here's the chapter I promised, a bit later than expected (and shorter) but my headaches are freaking killing me. Song is from dishonored (what do you do with the drunken whaler) Hope you enjoy! ** ***Disclaimer* I don't own op only my oc's**

Closing my eyes, I felt reality slip away from me, I had to make sure that they never did those things again. I had decided to try to negotiate with _them. _

Traveling through my mind I saw the place I was looking for, a green door leading to what I referred to as "The fields".When I went through it I was no longer on my bed in the room I shared with Tsubaki and Hikia but sitting on a stone field covered with a layer of a sickly green liquid.

"Welcome back, _Insanity_" I heard an ice cold female voice from behind me, rising up and turning to look at the person addressing me I saw a beautiful woman seemingly in her middle thirties, aged like fine wine, with lush full lips, black eyes and high cheekbones dressed in a tight knee long black dress and with long blond hair reaching her hips, pinned into an elegant style."It's been a while, hasn't it, _Hatred_?" I answered, copying her icy tone. Chuckling she said "Yes, for a reason I would suspect, you prefer staying as far away from us as possible, so, I wonder, what could have brought you here?" Her voice was steady and sounded like the voice of someone that had lived their entire life in luxury as a noble. "Haven't you felt it?" a childs voice interrupted our conversation

"Insanity's been getting shaky~" she said, drawing the y's on for as long as possible, turning to her I saw a face that I hated with all my heart, whose blood red eyes that shone with madness was contrasting sharply with her birds nest of short blond hair and the ripped apart straightjacket and black shorts. "She wants us to promise to not go on a rampage when we get out" she giggled "she was just lucky that she was the one that was there when that pirate saved us, and" her voice changed into that of an old hag "so was he" she giggled again, returning to her old tone. Hatred nodded "Bloodlust has a point, why should we promise anything when we could get out at any moment now? What do we get from that?" "what do you want?" I asked "we want you to disappear!" Bloodlust hissed "you are the weakest of us and yet you are the one in control? It makes no sense! You only got as far as you did because of us!" "Yes, b-but" I stuttered "why don't we take a look at how weak you are Insanity?" Hatred said, a wide grin splitting her face "Great idea!" Bloodlust shouted.

Suddenly darkness enveloped me, I knew this place, this was my home whenever I was not in control of my body, but Hatred was, this was the black door.

"No" I managed to say before I felt them, claws, scraping against my back, I couldn't move as I felt them rip through my skin, weaving their way through my intestines, like a web they covered my body, not only shredding my back anymore. As I felt some move towards my face I couldn't take it anymore, I screamed and screamed like it would take the pain away but, when they reached my eyes, ears, nose and mouth I fell quiet again, fear was crushing even my animalistic instincts. I knew what was next, and I feared it most of all. They forced their way into my mouth first, pushing down my throat and cutting off my air supply, next was my ears and nose, they went through them straight into my brain and turned it into mush, clawing on the inside of my skull, the only thing that was clear to me now was my pain. Finally the claws at my eyes sunk slowly into my eye sockets, mashing in and out until they were of a soup like consistence before making their way as deep as possible into my eyes. And there I hung, and I knew I would do so a long, long time.

_Standing in a door frame the child had no idea what was going on, she was covered in blood and holding a knife in her left hand, in front of her lay two corpses of a man and woman respectively. The voice in her head said that she did it, but that couldn't be true, she was fine, completely fine, mom and dad were only hurt, right? They would wake up and go to the doctor and everything would be fine right? Right? Right? They would tell stories and be happy right? Right? She wasn't guilty, not at all right? She was innocent, she must be! She couldn't have done this!_ _'Its all your fault' a voice in her head said and her face went blank._ _As she stood there, fighting a battle with herself her eyes changed color from green to red and she started slowly singing, a mad grin crossing her features._

_Stuff it in a sack and throw it over _

_Stuff it in a sack and throw it over_

_Stuff it in a sack and throw it over _ _early in the morning_

_Feed it to the hungry rats for dinner_

_Feed it to the hungry rats for dinner_

_Feed it to the hungry rats for dinner_ _early in the morning_

_Way hey and up she rises_

_Way hey and up she rises_

_Way hey and up she rises_ _early in the morning_

_Shoot it through the heart with a loaded pistol_

_Shoot it through the heart with a loaded pistol_

_Shoot it through the heart with a loaded pistol_ _early in the morning_

_Slice its throat with a rusty razor_

_Slice its throat with a rusty razor_

_Slice its throat with a rusty razor_ _early in the morning_

_Way hey and up she rises_

_Way hey and up she rises_

_Way hey and up she rises_ _early in the morning_

_The child stepped out on the street and grinned, she would paint the world red tonight._

**Yaaaay! My lazy ass wrote another super duper short chapter! Pretty please review it keeps my spirits up and makes me encouraged to write, as I am right now, eeeeeh... I'm not really that pumped when I say to myself "Get your fat ass away from the internet and write your fucking story bitch!" does it show? Also I want all the help I can get to improve my writing, after all, how will I know what is bad when no one tells me? Thank you for reading!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey! Sorry it's been so long since I updated, but I just had a huge writers block, anyways thanks to Arrow-chan3 for reviewing and I will edit it as soon as I can make myself, originally the document was in such a way that it would have been to your liking, but must have fucked it up, 'cuz when I look at it now... WTF is this shit?! **

**Anyways hope you enjoy the new chapter! :)**

**Medusa POV**

I had no idea how long I had been hanging with the claws curdled up around my organs and inside my brain, but it was long enough for the pain to dull slightly, so I would guess I'd been here for about five hours. Suddenly the claws started moving inside me, renewing the pain and puncturing my organs before curdling around them and tearing them out, leaving me in a bloody heap on the black mass that could be considered "ground".

Coughing and spluttering I lay sprawled on the ground, trying to convince my body that this was all in my head and couldn't inflict any lasting damage, although it's rather hard to say that something is not harmful when I knew it was, many times I had regained the control over my body only to find it covered in red rashes and scars where the claws had ripped open my body.

"Looks like hatred is done" came Bloodlusts voice from above me followed by a giggle "I wonder how many of those pirates are still alive? Come to think of it, why did you gamble your control for them? If I'm correct you were constantly trying to convince yourself that you didn't care for them, so why?"

"..." I didn't have an answer, I didn't know why I would do something so foolish, looking back now I could easily see how idiotic my actions had been, they were devoid of all sense, they were the actions of someone truly desperate. Thing is I didn't even know what I'd been so desperate over to begin with, true I didn't dislike any of the crewmembers I had met, but I didn't particularly like any of them either, I'd only been on their sub for a couple of days for Rogers sake!

Crawling up on my knees I tried to look into Bloodlusts face that would look just as shredded and caked with blood as mine undoubtedly did but what was left of my soupy eyes refused to register anything at all, I was blind and would probably stay that way until my body changed owner and I was pushed either into it or the last one of the torture chambers.

Bloodlust giggled, "This is the first time you've expressed any kind of emotion for anyone but us in years! OH am I going to enjoy replaying their deaths for you or what?!"

Suddenly, the black under us started to shift, she giggled again "I'll race ya!" she said and I felt her presence moving away from me, I didn't bother chasing, I knew I could never catch her, so instead I concentrated on being the one in control once Hatred fully relinquished it. I let my mind infect the darkness around me, seeping into the prison around me and forcing its walls open, I covered everything in the sickness that spread from me, and, when I felt an opening in the world around me outside of the darkness I clang to that place, clawed myself in and pushed out the black presence there, encasing it in the disease.

~Time skip time, 'cuz the chapter was too short, yaaaay~

Opening my eyes I was happy to find that I not only still had eyelids but I could also still see, 'that's a plus' I thought as I studied the room around me. I was lying in a soft bed, dressed in a nightgown in a room I didn't recognize, it didn't seem to be on the sub either since the room had one big window facing towards a beautiful garden from where birdsong was flowing into the room.

Sitting up I saw a newspaper laying on the bedside table with the title "Black reaper back in the game?"

covering the front page with a picture of her standing on the crows nest of a marine battleship, underneath was a small amount of text reading

"_The pirate that wrecked havoc on so many islands years ago known as the Soul reaper or Black reaper was believed to be dead until a couple of days ago when she appeared on the submarine of the Heart pirates and assisted in the takedown of a marine battleship, because of this her once nullified bounty has now become active again. To read more go to page 12."_

Putting the paper down I stood from the bed and grabbed my scythe that stood leaning against a door frame, since my clothes were nowhere in sight I decided that the gown would have to do and walked to the exit of the house I'd been staying in.

But before I opened the door I stopped, something was wrong, I could feel the smell of blood coming from beyond it, 'I guess Hatred pulled off another massacre, huh?' I thought to myself as I ripped of a bit of the gown and tied it around my nose before finally opening the door and stepping right into a gigantic maggot infested corpse with my bare foot.

'This is going to be a great day, isn't it?' I thought as I lifted my foot up and brushed the maggots off before they decided they were going to bury themselves in my foot, now being more careful about where I put my feet I sent a question into the depths of my mind "Did you do this you psychopathic bastard? But of course I didn't get an answer, only a feeling that I was stupid to even have to ask.

The entire town was a bloody mess with gore scattered everywhere and the gown that had started out white was now a dark scarlet, I could think what a tantrum Tsubaki would throw if she saw such a 'waste of a beautiful gown'

Frowning I realized my feet had steered their way towards the harbor this town was bound to have with a different intention than just stealing a boat to leave in, I was going there to see if the sub was there waiting for me.

**So, yeah... Sorry for the short chapter. **

**Pretty pretty please review.**


	7. Chapter 7

**New chapter, wheeeee! Also, now I have over 1000 views on this story so... Party like it's 1999! The song is "steady like the beating drum" from disneys Pocahontas**

Standing at the dock I assessed the damage done to the vessels, "dammit Hatred! Why did you have to do such a good job!" I found myself shouting at the air. Of the few ships, boats and dinghies that had presumably been docked there to begin with, only three were still floating, they were all relatively small boats. Around them a rather comical forest of masts was sticking up, taunting me with the difficulty I knew I'd have navigating a vessel out of the docking site because of them.

Sighing I picked up the bag of supplies I had "borrowed" from various stores and houses on my way through the town to the harbor and started making my way over to the biggest of the boats, scythe over my shoulder, it was a black one with clean white sails and no flag. It was quite big on the inside, as it had the basic necessities, like a bedroom, bathroom and kitchen as well as a large deck outside, all in a rather large size, overall it was a really nice boat for one person.

Deciding that it wouldn't get much better than this, I dropped of the bag in the bedroom and went out to pull up the anchor and set sail.

~time skip~

Navigating the boat out of the harbor had been extremely difficult, but I had, after about an hour of trial and error, done it and was now sailing the open sea.

Wiping sweat of my brow I went into the boat and headed for my bedroom, there I picked out a pair of black sweatpants, a yellow tank top and a black hoodie, I don't want to admit it, but I had actually taken a liking to both the color yellow and the boiler suits during my stay with the heart pirates and now my wardrobe consisted almost entirely of black, yellow and white, I also dropped of my scythe there. I took the clothes with me into the bathroom and put them on the toilet lid as I slipped out of the now disgusting gown and stepped into the shower.

'This is heaven!' I thought as the warm water trickled down my body, flushing away the caked on blood from my skin.

The blood on me and the town reminded me of the place I had once lived in, and I didn't like it.

Stepping out of the shower I pulled on my fresh clothes and placed the gown in the sink, maybe it could be saved, and if it didn't, I'd have something to use as bandage in case I got hurt.

After spending around an hour trying to press the blood out of the gown I had managed to get it as clean as it would ever be. Even with a torn hem and tinted a light pink it was a beautiful garment and I decided that it would be my sleeping wear from now on.

I made my way to my room and separated the rest of the clothes from the food in my bag, finding the bag that I'd had with me since before I was locked up by the pirates in the bottom, it had been by the door in the house I woke up in. I placed all the clothes on the bed, deciding that I'd deal with them later.

I scooped up the food and my smaller bag and took them too the kitchen where I sorted the food into the fridge, freezer and different cupboards. I wasn't hungry so I went out onto deck and sat down to admire the sunset as I dug into my bag and picked up a log pose from within.

I'd never been a navigator, but I knew the basics and thus set the course of the ship towards the next island.

~Time skip~

It had been a week since I left the massacred village and I had just recently sighted an island, perfect timing too because I was just starting to run out of food.

During the time I spent on the boat I regained a lot of my lost weight and, thanks to a full body mirror in the bedroom, started mending my appearance.

I'd never been one to care for my looks but going around looking like a starved dog wouldn't do me any good.

(useless short POV change)

The woman that stepped out of the black boat on the pier of the island that morning looked nothing like the one whom had boarded it, she had shoulder length blond hair that glowed golden in the sun, high cheekbones and eyes like emeralds, but she was yet a bit too young to be called beautiful, and too old to be called cute, pretty was the word to describe her and it fit.

(back to first person)

As I stepped out into the town the bustling of the crowd seemed to swallow me, it came like a wall and

to some extent it shocked me, I'd been alone on a boat with only the call of the birds and my own voice for a week and I wasn't used to such noise.

_'Deal with it!'_ I mentally shouted at myself _'it's not as if this is the first time you're in a town'_

Once my headache faded I continued my search for a specific shop that a town this big would definitively have, a navigation store.

I knocked a sandy haired stranger on the shoulder, and asked "Excuse me, could you tell me where to buy eternal poses?" As he turned around to face me I saw a friendly smile decorate the features of a man in his early twenties, _'Jackpot'_.

"Sure miss, but the way there is quite long, would you like me to lead you there?" he politely answered, completely unfazed by the scythe hanging over my shoulder.

"That would be very kind of you sir, but, aren't you afraid that I might hurt you?" I shuffled my shoulder to bring his attention to the weapon there.

"We get a lot of pirates around here since this island is so close to the Sabaody archipelago, besides, a girl like you would never be able to hurt me, you probably don't even know how to use that oversized thing"

_'Might as well play the innocent little girl, I guess I should be happy my appearance has changed so much during the last couple of days and my wanted poster is outdated.' _I thought

" Well I'm going to Sabaody to meet a relative, I just thought that carrying this thing might make me seem intimidating and scare off thugs." I said, calling upon my acting abilities to seem shy and slightly embarrassed.

"You're not succeeding girly, you're too pretty to be intimidating, lets get going toward the shop or else you'll never get there." He said as he grabbed my wrist and started pulling me towards the mountain that decorated the middle of the island. "By the way, what's your name?" he said as we walked.

"Medusa" I answered, deciding to stick with the name I'd given myself, "what about you?"

"I'm Sercie, but my buddies call me Sci" he smiled, a warm and honest smile that almost made me feel bad for not telling him who I was, being seen with me could, after all, ruin his life and potentially even get him a bounty.

"What Island are you from?" was his next question.

"I don't know, I have amnesia and the only thing I remember from my childhood is how my dad looks, that's why I'm going to Sabaody, to look for him." I decided to play the amnesia card for backstory here, I couldn't really be proven right or wrong so it was perfect for me. "What island is this?" I asked to keep him from nosing more into my business, I am relatively sure I can create a believable story but I haven't had any practice in years and I am afraid my tongue might slip.

"It's known as Hanayama or flower mountain because it's known for its flowers and the mountain on which the most beautiful of them grow." he stopped walking and let go of my wrist "I can show some of them to you after we've been to the shop" smiling he looked affectionately towards the mountain.

"Sounds like a plan! Do you know if any of them have any special properties?" I asked, starting to take a liking to his positive attitude.

"Sure I do! I'm an herbalist, I know most of them by heart!" he exclaimed, seemingly happy to get someone to talk plants with as he once again grabbed my wrist and started pulling me through the rows of houses surrounding us.

Thus the conversation turned into a discussion on the medicinal properties of certain flowers as he helped me navigate through the streets and filthy alleys of the town. As we stepped into a part of the town that seemed much poorer then the rest I concentrated on the world around me and found numerous people hiding in the alleyway, I pulled on Sci's coat "let's get out of here, this place is giving me a bad vibe"

"I know it's filthy Medusa but there's no reason to be afraid, I'll protect you if anything goes bad"

Just then one of the presences decided to step out of its hiding place and we were faced with a girl, only looking a few years younger than me "help me!" she cried out "some thugs are chasing me and I can't outrun them!"

Before I could open my mouth Serice spoke, "of course we'll help" he smiled softly down at her "where are they?" when he said this I felt a small amount of satisfied smugness from the girl as she pointed in the direction we'd come from with a distressed face that didn't at all match her gladness to have caught us in her trap. Of course Sci wasn't alerted to the fact that the thugs probably had been waiting for a victim to fall in their ambush and that the girl probably was an orphan that collaborated with them for a share in the loot, so when he turned around he was surprised to find a group of twenty men give or take, with their hands holding various weapons, of which a knife was the most common, pointed at us.

"Please save me!" the girl cried out, keeping her act of the damsel in distress. Sci, the ever kind soul that he was nodded "don't worry ladies, I'll protect you" he said as he pulled out a pair of knives from underneath his coat and took a battle stance facing the thugs.

He lounged forward towards the foremost of the thugs and managed to cut a wound in his gut with the blade in his left hand while he swung the right towards the closest enemy and slit his throat. He moved with deadly ferocity from enemy to enemy, never taking more than one hit to kill them, skillfully twirling the knives in his fingers to the angle where they would make the most damage. As the last thug fell I felt the smugness dissolve from around the girl and a blind rage take over, in an instant she'd run from behind me and taken a swing at Sci, claws protruding where her nails should be and facial features resembling those of a feline, she'd hit him in the back creating three long gashes and as he fell to the ground he looked surprised up on her, I too was surprised, I hadn't expected her to be more than bait.

The gashes on Sci weren't deep, I had time to deal with her first. As he tried to crawl up to fight her I pushed him back down with the end of the staff on my scythe "what are you doing?" he asked, still trying to crawl up off the ground.

"Aaaaaw, you're worried about me, how cute" I smiled deviously down at him, "but I think it's time for a catfight" I said as I redirected the tip of my scythe to align with the girls head "come get me kitty"

As I said that her eyes widened and a smile stretched over her face, revealing razor sharp teeth, "why don't you just die for me moneybag? If I can kill you I'll be able to live in luxury for the rest of my life!"

"Wait, what?" I heard from behind me.

I grinned and let my disease crawl up from the depths of my psyche and enveloped my mind in it, letting myself go and leaving dealing with this kitty to my insanity.

I felt myself grin even wider and my body moving at inhuman speeds as it positioned itself for a slice at her throat, but her devils fruit seemed to have been speed focused and she managed to block, her three big claws curdled around my scythe and stopped it from ever reaching her neck. We jumped away from each other, as far as we could in the cramped alleyway, and as we were staring each other down a layer of fur appeared on her, her stature grew larger and the claws longer, in the end I had a white tiger-human standing in front of me, still with human shape but every other part bengal tiger. I lounged at her, swinging my scythe back and hitting her in the chest with the staff, knocking her into the wall of the alley, it rendered her unconscious almost immediately. I pushed my insanity back down, I had no need to kill her, and if I did I wouldn't be able to stop killing, this town would end up just like the last one I'd been to.

I once again hooked the scythe over my shoulder and went over to Serice who, too, had fainted, but he from bloodloss, I turned him over so that I could see his wounds as I reached out to a corpse that lay relatively close and tore its shirt to long strips of bandage that I used to temporarily patch up Sci before I loaded him over my shoulder, determined to find a doctor able to save him.

~Time skip~

I was sitting at the edge of a rock on the mountain with the Sabaody archipelago eternal pose in my bag while Sci was gathering flowers down below, the sinking sun in my back. As the wind blew, making leafs dance in front of me I felt the urge to try to express the beauty of the mountain in words.

_Steady as the beating drum_

_singing to the cedar flute_

_seasons go and seasons come_

_bring the corn and bear the fruit_

_By the water sweet and clean_

_where the mighty sturgeon lives_

_plant the squash and reap the beans_

_all the earth our mother gives_

_Oh great spirit hear my song_

_help me keep the ancient ways_

_keep the sacred fire strong_

_walk in balance all my days_

_seasons go and seasons come_

_steady as the beating drum_

_plum to seed to bud to plum_

_steady as the beating drum_

I knew it was a harvest song, but it simply seemed to fit the place, beautiful, untouched nature as far as the eyes could see. It gave me a sense of warmth and safety '_like home' _I found myself thinking, _'if I one day settle down, this is where I would want to live. This place I could call home' _I shook the thought almost as soon as it made its way into my head, I am a criminal, I can never settle down for then the marines might find this paradise too, the possibility of this place being subjected to something like a buster call frightened me, this place was sacred ground, I could feel it.

"You have a really pretty voice" I heard behind me and I flinched.

"Don't sneak up on me like that Sercie!"

"What? Were you that deep in your thoughts? I made a bunch of noise when I came up here, seriously how could you climb this thing in less than ten minutes? Also why didn't you have any respect for me when choosing location to sit? I'm injured you know!"

"It's just a few meters, and it's not like it's some kind of flat surface." I chuckled "thanks for the compliment by the way"

Sci sat down on the edge next to me "Hey, how long will you be staying?"

"As long as it takes to fill up my supplies and shop some more clothing, why?"

"Do you have anywhere to live? You'll be welcome in my house"

"Then I guess I'll be crashing at your place tonight" I smiled at him, the movement of my face was still weird to me but it had gotten a lot better just in this one day. Suddenly his brows furrowed,

"Hey, my memories of the alley are a bit fuzzy but, what did the cat-girl mean by all that about if she killed you she would get rich? And, how the hell did you manage to get away?"

I sighed "I am a wanted criminal Sci, the government wants my head on a plate and they want it really badly, as for the kitty-cat... She should be waking up just about now"

"You didn't kill her did you?" he looked genuinely worried about that "I mean, she's just a girl."

"No, she should be fine, I just knocked her out" his expression instantly changed to his normal slight smile, a long pause followed that "aren't you afraid of me?" I finally asked, usually when civilians found out about me being a criminal they'd try to get as far away from me as possible to avoid drawing any negative attention from the world government.

"No! Why would I be?" he asked, giving me a look that said 'duh' "as I said we get a lot of pirates here, how do you think I learned to fight so well? Oh! By the way" he said as he gave me a bouquet of some of the most beautiful flowers I'd ever seen, packaged together with one order of Sci's childish glee.

"They're beautiful" I said as I stared at the flowers that seemed to glow in the light of the setting sun.

"Anything for a lady, now, what do you say we get going home?"

**Longer chapter, Wheeeeeeeeeee, I've written this the day I got home from a trip and I am really really tired, sorry for any flaws. Please review and I hope you had a nice time reading. :D**

**Hana=flower Yama=Mountain, flower mountain is written Hana yama in romaji or ****花 山 ****in kanji I wrote Hanayama together 'cuz I thought it looked better**


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